We need to focus on what will really address access to affordable housing!

Twice as many new homes have been built in London in the past decade as the number of households added to the city’s population, yet average property values in some areas have almost doubled, says the Guardian, in an article this week.

Writer Phineas Harper observes that rents and house prices have gone up even where populations have fallen, which shows that “at the bottom line, increasing the supply of new homes relative to the population simply doesn’t bring down prices as some claim.”

Harper notes that even in areas with especially high levels of new development, property prices have continued to rise.  In Croydon, south London, for example, the total number of dwellings has increased by 39% since 1971, significantly outpacing a population growth of just 13% over the same period, but house prices have shot up nonetheless.

“The housing market is broken” says CPRE London Director, Anna Taylor.  “What we need to  urgently focus on is making homes affordable.  The government should be looking at how we can replenish the number of homes available for social rent.  We need to use the tax system to discourage houses being bought as investments and then being left empty all or most of the time, rather than being made available as homes. Some form of rent controls are also urgently needed in the capital.”

The government has pledged 1.5m new homes this parliament, but in practice that could take many shapes, Harper says.

He goes on to point out: “With an ambitious approach, Labour could create a new generation of well-designed sustainable neighbourhoods, upgrading existing dwellings alongside commissioning new ones, and using regulatory measures to bake in long-term affordability.

“On the other hand, if building the homes is left to an amped-up version of Britain’s conventional property-development models, with oil- and cement-based materials and no mechanism to guarantee affordability, we risk burning through our carbon budget and locking in car dependency, while failing to make housing cheaper for anyone.”

Read the full article here https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/29/yimbys-building-homes-solve-housing-crisis

To support CPRE London’s work campaigning for an= better informed approach to tackling the housing crisis that actually tackles the urgent need for more affordable homes, as well as raising awareness of the importance for climate and nature of the capital’s Green Belt and other green spaces – please click here.